Flitting from grungey commentary (Slacker) to animated intellectualism (Waking Life) and cockle-warming comedy (School of Rock), the director Richard Linklater is a hard man to pigeonhole. But if there was one step in his career that we could have predicted, it was a sequel to Before Sunrise.

A Brief Encounter for Generation X, it ended on a tantalising note — with the French student Celine (Delpy) chugging out of Vienna station after a life-changing 24-hour tryst with Jesse, Hawke’s American backpacker. Kisses were exchanged, tears